Plenty of social media posts lambaste the calls to boycott Dave’s, calling it political correctness run amok. “To know what Trump stands for and the things he’s done, it’s shocking,” Tim said. And I can choose not to shop at your store.”īrad Tim of Northampton said he’s circulating a boycott petition. If you want to stand next to that guy, you can choose that. “I live in a very, very left-wing area that has a lot of unhappiness about the attacks on LGBTQ issues, the attacks on women’s issues. “I’m sure that there are people who are Trump supporters who are happy, but I don’t have to be,” Olsson said. He said the image of Ratner standing behind Trump caused him to reconsider his patronage, even as he acknowledged Asked if he is a Dave’s customer, Northampton resident Eric Olsson, out walking his 8-month-old puppy, Mochi, said simply, “I was.” On Sunday, nearly every dog owner interviewed at an unofficial dog park in Northampton was familiar with the controversy. “I really believe that he was motivated to do a very good thing for all of us.” Most people, she said, “just wanted to yell.”ĭurand said her boss acted out of a desire to obtain better insurance coverage for his 150 employees. Ratner’s Northampton store manager, Shannon Durand, said her shop has been swamped with angry phone calls. In an interview with the Globe, Ratner was moved to tears several times. Some have called him a scumbag or a fool. Comments on the company website and on social media have been brutal. “I absolutely abhor what he did, and I would not have been there had I known what was happening,” Ratner said.įor some customers, that is not good enough. Trump’s order was swiftly followed Thursday by a second move, halting a subsidy that makes health coverage affordable for many low-income citizens - an action that drew a lawsuit from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. He said he had no idea about the scope of the rollback of the ACA included in the executive order. He didn’t think long or hard about whether to attend. “My first reaction was ‘Holy smokes, he’s doing something good,’ ” Ratner said. Ratner received a call from the federation, inviting him to a ceremony in which Trump would sign an order restoring that power to small businesses. Since then, he has trekked to Washington, D.C., annually, talking to anyone who will listen about how unfair that is.įast-forward to two weeks ago. With the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, this negotiating power vanished. For years through this federation, his company and others negotiated for cheaper group insurance rates, giving them some of the advantages large companies have. He has tried to explain this to his customers, and he’s pained that many of them won’t even listen.įor those willing to hear it, here’s the back story: Ratner is an active member of the National Retail Federation, a trade association supportive of small businesses. He said his wife now tells him that was naive, and he’s deeply regretful of his actions. Ratner said he didn’t fully understand what he was going to the White House to witness. He tracks purchases in order to provide better service. His recorded distinctive voice answers the phone at all the stores, from Stafford Springs, Conn., to Agawam, Ware, Northampton, Ludlow, and Hadley. He makes robo-calls to a large customer base - it’s not uncommon for his customers to come home from work to a message with Dave’s voice informing them of a sale. He appears in zany television commercials, prompting strangers to stop him on the street to say hello. Indeed, Ratner is a presence in Western Massachusetts. “My theory on doing business is that all things being equal, people do business with people they like,” he said. Ratner, a Springfield native who opened his first store in Hadley in 1975, said he built his brand on the idea that customers want to feel connected to the owners of the shops they patronize. The owner of Dave’s Soda and Pet City has received a lot of blowback after he was at the White House when President Trump signed an order on health care. Read Story Cullen: Somebody throw this poor guy a bone
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